The road to sustainable living?

Here I sit, a short 500 days (or 43,200,000 seconds – sounds better and like I have more time) before I plan to break ground on a renovation that I am hoping will turn a 59 yr old bungalow into a modern, comfortable, and extremely energy efficient & environmentally friendly structure.

As I plan the project I am wondering: What do I want to do?  How am I going to achieve it?  Can I (we) afford it?  Why the heck am I doing this?

I recently met with a colleague in the construction industry who challenged me by saying “What are you trying to achieve?  What is important to you?”  I have to admit, I did not have a good answer at the time.

In order for me to figure out an answer for this, I guess I need to look back to see how I have arrived where I am today and where it is that I have actually arrived.

This blog will chronicle this journey as I figure out my (our) priorities, what makes sense for me (us), what will represent the biggest bang for the buck, and what is the definition, at least for me, of living in a sustainable fashion. 

The blog will also discuss design decisions, material specifications & pricing, pitfalls to avoid, and post construction – operating costs.

It is the hope that this blog will therefore provide guidance to others embarking on this path and encouragement to the public at large - that they too can make a difference to their environmental impact on this planet by making informed choices during their builds and day to day living.

I encourage you to provide comment and critique as I take this journey.  My requirement to continue learning is ongoing and there is much that I still will need to figure out before this goal will be accomplished.